However, installing this sucker has been a God-damn, mother-****ing, son-of-a-bitch, pain-in-the-ass.

For whatever reason, my [Gateway] computer system is not recognizing the new drive as a slave to the CD-ROM. I think that I have the ribbon cable connected right...but, then again, if I did, it would be goddamn working!!!

I have the new drive set to slave, I think I have the ribbon cable connected to the right slot, etc.

IMPORTANT NOTE: My computer does not seem to be recognizing an E drive as it should. I don't recall an E drive from before I got the recorder. Would it create one, etc. Or have I really ****ed up in trying to put a CD-RW in my computer tower....

It could be that the drive isn't being detected by the BIOS when the computer boots. Go into BIOS setup (usually accessed with the DELETE or F2 key when the machine first starts.) Make sure the drive (Secondary Slave, right?) is set to something like "Auto" and not "None." If it's set to none, the computer will obviously never see the drive.

But... your computer must be detecting something connected since it has designated the E drive for it, which you don't remember seeing before you plugged the drive in. Go into your control panel (start->settings->control panel), and double click "System." Choose the device manager tab and see if there are any red exclaimation points on components. Check if your burner is listed under the "CDROM." If it is, then it should be installed properly.

You could also try unconnecting the CD-ROM and configuring the burner as the master, just to see if it works.

Good luck.
http://www.gateway.com/support/index.shtml

Yamaha has a very helpful "Quick Start Guide" available from their website. It's a big download if you are on dial-up (close to 3MB), but I'm sure it's worth it:
http://www.yamaha.com/menuitems/quickstart/cpd/CRW2200EZ.pdf

Nothing works right. I must have started and restarted my computer fifty or sixty times now.

Either the D drive appears or the E. Never both. Sound blaster's getting all ****ed up too.

It is recommended that you connect your CDRW to the IDE cable coming off of the CDROM drive, not the cable coming off the hard drive. If you do use the hard drive, the HD must always be set on master.

Read pages 15 and 16 in careful context of what setup you have. Will the CDRW be the only disc drive? Is it an additional disc drive? etc.

Once you've shredded pages 15 and 16 and there's nothing left, contact the manufacturer of the computer or the CDRW and tell them these two products don't work together.

NP:The Boy Who Could Fly...Bruce Broughton

Basically I've replaced the IPE cable running from the motherboard to the CDROM, as the instructions say to do. [I tried it with the new and old ribbon cords, do not worry. It didn't work in either case.]

Next, I took the middle connector in the ribbon cord and attached it to the CD-RW drive. This is the so-called slave connection?

Then I hooked the end of the cord to the CD-ROM drive. This is the so-called master setting, right?

Now, regarding this BIOS stuff, all of the settings were on auto. [And it was the F1 key, by the way, just if any of you Gateway users want to know.]

However, there was a CD-ROM choice instead of auto. I didn't try it cause I was so tired of failing by that point in the evening. I just wanted to get some ****ing sleep.

The choices were Primary Master Connection, Primary Slave Connection, Secondary Master Connection, Secondary Slave Connection. I'm all but 100% sure that my CD-ROM is connected to the secondary connection.

Can you fill in the blanks for me, Peter?

The fact that one of your drives keeps disappearing sounds like you might have tried to connect two drives on the same channel with the same jumper setting, i.e. two primary masters, or two secondary slaves,... Make sure you always have different jumper settings if you connect two drives to one cable.

Jonathan: It's probably different with various boards, but mine always recognizes CD drives, even if I disable the drive in the BIOS.

No no. If you are only using the IDE cable from the motherboard to the CDROM and CDRW drives, you don't have to mess with any slave/master connections at all. This slave/master thing is really only important if you are connecting your CDRW along the cable attached to the hard drive. Make sure it's set back to the default slave setting.

".....Then I hooked the end of the cord to the CD-ROM drive. This is the so-called master setting, right?"

The slave/master setting doesn't really apply in this case (just make sure it's set to slave).

What you need to do is the opposite of what you've done. Have the IDE cable go from the motherboard to the CDROM (it has a default setting of master on the secondary controller), and then from the CDROM to the CDRW.